VOLUME – II, ISSUE - III (MARCH, 2012)

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VOLUME NO. 2 (2012), ISSUE NO. 3 (MARCH) ISSN 2231-5756

A Monthly Double-Blind Peer Reviewed Refereed Open Access International e-Journal - Included in the International Serial Directories

Indexed & Listed at:

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VOLUME NO. 2 (2012), ISSUE NO. 3 (MARCH) ISSN 2231-5756

CONTENTS

Sr.

No.

TITLE & NAME OF THE AUTHOR (S)

Page No.

1. BRAND THEOLOGY: CONDITIONING AND CONFIGURING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

ANM FARUKH

1

2. IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION AND UNION – MANAGEMENT RELATION ON ENHANCED CUSTOMER SATISFACTION- REGRESSION ANALYSIS: A STUDY OF ANDHRA PRADESH STATE ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORATION (A.P.S.R.T.C)

A. R. VIJAYA CHANDRAN, DR. MOHAMMED ABBAS ALI & DR. V. M. PRASAD

5

3. A STUDY OF THE ATTITUDE OF THE YOUTH TOWARDS ADOPTION OF INTERNET ENTERPRENEUERSHIP IN NIGERIA

DR. I C NWAIZUGBO & V N O AGHARA

7

4. THE IMPACT OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT ON SOCIETAL MARKETING PRACTICES IN LAGOS MEGA CITY, NIGERIA

DR. HALIRU BALA

11

5. IMPACT OF HUMAN ERROR IN MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT AND MINIMIZING METHODOLOGY

N. K. K. PRASANNA & TUSHAR N. DESAI

15

6. INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP-AN ATTEMPT AT QUANTIFYING IT

T K PARAMESWARAN NAIR

21

7. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO TIRUPUR- AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

DR. S. KUPPUSAMY, E.DEEPA & M. STELLA

27

8. MANAGERIAL PERCEPTION TOWARDS INDUSTRIAL SUBSIDY AND ITS IMPACT ON INDUSTRIALIZATION IN UTTRAKHAND: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

DR. D S CHAUBEY, SIDHESWAR PATRA & PRAVEEN KUKRETI

33

9. EMPLOYEE’S DISSONANCE TOWARDS SAFETY, HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT (SHE) IN CONFECTIONERY INDUSTRY

DR.MU.SUBRAHMANIAN & P. RENGANATHAN

40

10. ACCEPTANCE AND USAGE OF MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (MIS) IN SMALL SCALE INDUSTRIES

C.G. RAMACHANDRA & T.R. SRINIVAS

43

11. DEVELOPING RIGHT HUMAN EQUATION BY SELF KNOWLEDGE FOR CHANGE MANAGEMENT: LEARNING FROM INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

DR. K. V. ALIAS. BALAJI, DR. M.SIVAGNANASUNDARAM & BIDYANAND JHA

47

12. A STUDY ON WORK- LIFE BALANCE AMONG WOMEN TEACHERS WORKING IN SELF-FINANCING ENGINEERING INSTITUTIONS

S.PATTU MEENAKSHI & DR. K. RAVICHANDRAN

51

13. THE EFFECT OF TEAM PROCESS AND KEY COMPENSATION FACTORS WHILE MOTIVATING HIGH PERFORMANCE IN PHARMACEUTICAL SALES TEAMS

DR. SURENDRA KUMAR

56

14. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IN TWO WHEELER INDUSTRY - A STUDY ON HERO HONDA AND BAJAJ AUTO SUPPLY CHAIN PRACTICES

R.VENKATESHWAR RAO.

61

15. OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE OF TURMERIC EXTRACTION FIRMS: AN INPUT-OUTPUT ANALYSIS

V.ABIRAMI & DR. HANSA LYSANDER MANOHAR

67

16. ANALYSIS OF PERSISTENCY IN THE MONTHLY COIMBATORE RAINFALL

TAMIL SELVI .S & SAMUEL SELVARAJ. R

71

17. PROS AND CONS OF IMPLEMENTING EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT IN SERVICE SECTOR- A META ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH LITERATURE

ELIZABETH GEORGE & DR. ZAKKARIYA K.A.

73

18. STUDY OF CONSUMER AWARENESS ABOUT E-BANKING SERVICES AND ITS APPLICATION IN SELECT AREA OF PUNE CITY

KRISHNA MOHAN SHARMA & VINEETA DEOLIA

77

19. CSR – A NEW ROLE ENTRUSTED TO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

PRAGATI CHAUHAN & YOGITA SHARMA

80

20. A STUDY ON EFFECTIVENESS OF CAPITAL STRUCTURE AMONG SELECTED PRIVATE TEXTILE COMPANIES IN INDIA

VIVEK SUBRAMANIAM

84

21. IMPACT OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS ON BUSINESS CYCLES IN DEVELOPING ASIA AND THE DECOUPLING HYPOTHESIS

DR. RAVI SINGLA

91

22. SYSTEMATIC RISK AND RETURN ANALYSIS IN SECURITY MARKET

NIVEDHITA.J & REVATHI.P

97

23. ASSETS FORMATION AND BUSINESS IN PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK: A CASE STUDY

NAMITA MAINI

102

24. GOVERNANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY - A JOINT VENTURE (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO TATA)

RADHAKRISHNA MISHRA & MALAVIKA PATTNAIK

105

25. FACTORS EFFECTING READING DECISION OF PRINT ADVERTISEMENT: AN EXPLORATORY AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

ANUPAMA SUNDAR & JATIN PANDEY

108

26. WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT AND PROFITABILITY –A CASE STUDY OF BALRAMPUR CHINNI MILLS LIMITED

DR. P. C. NARWARE

111

27. ROLE OF ICT MICRO ENTERPRISES ON WOMEN DEVELOPMENT IN KERALA

DR. C.S. SIVA PRAKASH

115

28. ENTREPRENEURSHIP AMONG RURAL WOMEN -A STUDY IN ANDHRA PRADESH

DR. NANU LUNAVATH

122

29. BUSINESS EXCELLENCE MODELS: QUANTIFYING THE IMPLEMENTATION AND MATURITY LEVEL – A STATISTICAL APPROACH

RUCHIK GANDHI & JUBIN MEHTA

130

30. STUDENT’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS APPLICATION OF STATISTICS: A STUDY OF UNIVERSITY OF JAMMU

ANJU THAPA & ANKUSH BHARTI

135

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CHIEF PATRON

PROF. K. K. AGGARWAL

Chancellor, Lingaya’s University, Delhi

Founder Vice-Chancellor, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi

Ex. Pro Vice-Chancellor, Guru Jambheshwar University, Hisar

PATRON

SH. RAM BHAJAN AGGARWAL

Ex. State Minister for Home & Tourism, Government of Haryana

Vice-President, Dadri Education Society, Charkhi Dadri

President, Chinar Syntex Ltd. (Textile Mills), Bhiwani

CO

CO----ORDINATOR

ORDINATOR

AMITA

Faculty, Government M. S., Mohali

ADVISORS

DR. PRIYA RANJAN TRIVEDI

Chancellor, The Global Open University, Nagaland

PROF. M. S. SENAM RAJU

Director A. C. D., School of Management Studies, I.G.N.O.U., New Delhi

PROF. M. N. SHARMA

Chairman, M.B.A., Haryana College of Technology & Management, Kaithal

PROF. S. L. MAHANDRU

Principal (Retd.), Maharaja Agrasen College, Jagadhri

EDITOR

PROF. R. K. SHARMA

Professor, Bharti Vidyapeeth University Institute of Management & Research, New Delhi

CO

CO----EDITOR

EDITOR

DR. BHAVET

Faculty, M. M. Institute of Management, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, Ambala, Haryana

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

DR. RAJESH MODI

Faculty, Yanbu Industrial College, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

PROF. SANJIV MITTAL

University School of Management Studies, Guru Gobind Singh I. P. University, Delhi

PROF. ANIL K. SAINI

Chairperson (CRC), Guru Gobind Singh I. P. University, Delhi

DR. SAMBHAVNA

Faculty, I.I.T.M., Delhi

DR. MOHENDER KUMAR GUPTA

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DR. SHIVAKUMAR DEENE

Asst. Professor, Dept. of Commerce, School of Business Studies, Central University of Karnataka, Gulbarga

MOHITA

Faculty, Yamuna Institute of Engineering & Technology, Village Gadholi, P. O. Gadhola, Yamunanagar

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

PROF. NAWAB ALI KHAN

Department of Commerce, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, U.P.

PROF. ABHAY BANSAL

Head, Department of Information Technology, Amity School of Engineering & Technology, Amity University, Noida

PROF. A. SURYANARAYANA

Department of Business Management, Osmania University, Hyderabad

DR. ASHOK KUMAR

Head, Department of Electronics, D. A. V. College (Lahore), Ambala City

DR. SAMBHAV GARG

Faculty, M. M. Institute of Management, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, Ambala, Haryana

PROF. V. SELVAM

SSL, VIT University, Vellore

DR. PARDEEP AHLAWAT

Reader, Institute of Management Studies & Research, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak

S. TABASSUM SULTANA

Associate Professor, Department of Business Management, Matrusri Institute of P.G. Studies, Hyderabad

SURJEET SINGH

Asst. Professor, Department of Computer Science, G. M. N. (P.G.) College, Ambala Cantt.

TECHNICAL ADVISOR

AMITA

Faculty, Government H. S., Mohali

MOHITA

Faculty, Yamuna Institute of Engineering & Technology, Village Gadholi, P. O. Gadhola, Yamunanagar

FINANCIAL ADVISORS

DICKIN GOYAL

Advocate & Tax Adviser, Panchkula

NEENA

Investment Consultant, Chambaghat, Solan, Himachal Pradesh

LEGAL ADVISORS

JITENDER S. CHAHAL

Advocate, Punjab & Haryana High Court, Chandigarh U.T.

CHANDER BHUSHAN SHARMA

Advocate & Consultant, District Courts, Yamunanagar at Jagadhri

SUPERINTENDENT

SURENDER KUMAR POONIA

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VOLUME NO. 2 (2012), ISSUE NO. 3 (MARCH) ISSN 2231-5756

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Bowersox, Donald J., Closs, David J., (1996), "Logistical Management." Tata McGraw, Hill, New Delhi.

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Hunker, H.L. and A.J. Wright (1963), "Factors of Industrial Location in Ohio" Ohio State University, Nigeria.

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Sharma T., Kwatra, G. (2008) Effectiveness of Social Advertising: A Study of Selected Campaigns, Corporate Social Responsibility, Edited by David Crowther & Nicholas Capaldi, Ashgate Research Companion to Corporate Social Responsibility, Chapter 15, pp 287-303.

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Garg, Sambhav (2011): "Business Ethics" Paper presented at the Annual International Conference for the All India Management Association, New Delhi, India, 19–22 June.

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Kumar S. (2011): "Customer Value: A Comparative Study of Rural and Urban Customers," Thesis, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra.

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BRAND THEOLOGY: CONDITIONING AND CONFIGURING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

ANM FARUKH

HEAD

DEPARTMENT OF R & D

MUTUAL TRUST BANK LTD.

DHAKA

ABSTRACT

Background of this study is formed standing against the view that “marketers should customize their Brands as par the Consumer Behaviour”. This study takes a reverse view and explores the possibility to find whether consumer behaviour be shaped by brands. If a brand can shape consumer behaviour, would bring splendid outcome to the chronicle of brandings. The aim of this study was to explore the possibility whether consumer behaviour could be shaped by brands in this world of cluttered Brands. The method of this study was completely Meta Analysis based on secondary knowledge and information. The core method of this study was connecting the dotted lines across knowledge of different disciplines even psychology and neuropsychology and getting them ordered to focus the light on objective of this study. The study finds that, Brand Positioning could be used to manipulate and better represent a brand in order to shape consumer behavior. This study further finds that despite the power of data collection and analysis technology, individual’s behaviour remains tantalizingly unpredictable, because a great deal of brand choice and purchase behaviour is automatic and no longer exists in the province of consciousness. This study suggests marketers to focus on in-depth issues more; and to less depend on directly asked-answered questionnaire method, as questionnaire-based research work reaches consumer’s conscious level, where a few decisions are actually taken, if not all.

KEYWORDS

Brand, Consumer Behavior, Consumer Psychology, New method of Branding.

BACKGROUND

here are now millions of middle-class people looking for an international behaviour and international products. Unilever through market research found that ‘metropolitan Thais are more eager to try new products than many other nationalities. Moreover, young women believe that changing their shampoo brands regularly makes their hair look better and there is an increasing number of people becoming ''fashion conscious" especially regarding their hair’ (Malhotra, 2004).

Based on the information, Unilever has tapped into the market with customized products/brands, and have gained a good amount of profits as Malhotra (2004) mentions taking into account the cultural background and the cultural evolution of the Thai population Unilever has reoriented its strategy. Thus, Thailand has become one of Unilever's key centres for the development of new hair products and Unilever's Organic shampoo was first launched in Thailand before being available worldwide.

In the whole scenario, brand was designed and positioned according to the behaviour and culture of the consumers. This is the mostly used marketing practice by the managers across the globe. Simply this policy is to discover the existing culture and consumers’ needs and then to re-position the brands. That is, Consumer Needs help shaping the Brands.

This study seeks for ways to manipulate brand’s attributes instead of customizing the brand at regional and cultural level. If a brand’s relation with human behaviour can be manipulated so that they can shape consumer behaviour, would bring splendid outcome to the history of brand, which will not only create merely brand loyalty but also the brand will be instilled within the consumer mind in a way, which is hard to change, even if someone wants to. This would definitely create stronger brands.

However, in recent years, the more trade barriers are being removed the tougher business is. That is why, branding has been getting more and more emphasize day by day. At the same time, more and more creative thinking is explored for creating, positioning and communicating brands. In search of creative ways of branding, this study explores the relationship between a brand and consumer and the impact a brand may have on consumer behaviour.

BRAND AS A CONSTRUCT

‘The word "brand" is derived from the Old Norse brandr meaning "to burn." It refers to the practice of producers burning their mark (or brand) onto their products’ (Wikipedia, 2011). ‘The Italians were among the first to use brands, in the form of watermarks on paper in the 1200s’ (Colapinto, 2011). Although today’s modern commercial concept of branding developed in late 18th century especially in England and the USA. Among the commodities of that era “Sunlight” is a brand of household soap originally produced by the British company Lever Brothers (Later used as Lever) in 1885. ‘It was the world's first packaged, branded laundry soap’ (BBC, 2011). Previously Lever and other companies in England used to sell in huge 10kg slabs. Lever introduced 100gm piece of soap with every soap branded with its unique logo, another reason for this launch was an attempt to protect counterfeit and make the product stand out. They also wrapped every 100gm soaps with paper printed Sunlight ‘branded’ across it. The role of the Sunlight label was shorthand: a promise that a customer would get a certain quality standard every single time that commodity was purchased. On that era the effect was instead of asking for just soap, consumer started to ask for Lever’s Sunlight. This also brought a consistent level of promise for consumer that every time they purchase a Lever’s Sunlight they were assured to get a certain level of quality. For this proposition of delivering assured quality consistently, Lever charged premium (and market was ready to pay) over any other soaps in the market during that period which was merely a commodity in that time. Naturally this phenomenon occurring in England was not the only example of the world’s getting into the era of commercial branding. The same period, across the Atlantic in the USA, ‘a chemist by the name of John Pemberton from Atlanta had created a cola beverage that made labourers feel miraculously refreshed. He branded his product Coca Cola in an attempt to distinguish his product from other similar competitors’ (Pendergrast, 2000).

A number of definitions were found for ‘Brand’. Simoes & Dibb (2001) says ‘A brand embodies a whole set of physical and socio-psychological attributes and beliefs which are associated with the product. It is more than the shaping of distinctiveness: it is the forging of associations.’ While Hankinson & Cowking (1993) says ‘A product or service made distinctive by its positioning relative to the competition and by its personality, which comprises a unique combination of functional attributes and symbolic values’. Chernatony & Dall’Olmo (1998) suggest that ‘the brand is a multidimensional construct whereby managers augment products or services with values and this facilitates the process by which consumers confidently recognise and appreciate these values’. Kapferer (1997) mentioned that “the brand is a sign therefore external whose function is to disclose the hidden qualities of the product which are inaccessible to contact” (p. 28).

In culmination to the above definitions, first of all it can be said that, Brand is a multi dimensional construct and thus its definition is multi facet. Brand is a set of physical and socio-psychological attributes and beliefs associated with the product. Brand is distinctive by its positioning relative to competition and by its personality that combines unique functional attributes and symbolic values. Brand facilitates consumers confidently recognise it. Brand is a sign that discloses the hidden qualities of the product.

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Cognition of

Brand Comprehension

Affects Attitude of

Consumer toward the Brand

Change in Attitude changes consumers’ Buying Behavior

In exploring links between brand and its impact on consumer behaviour the above definition provides insights important to the topic. As it is said product associated Socio – psychological attributes and beliefs are subsets to brand, indicates that Brand may have impact on consumer psychology through this attribute, and consumer psychology may bring impact on consumer behaviour.

BRAND – CONSUMER RELATIONSHIP

Many of the studies involving brands have focused on the product attributes or benefits. Aaker, D.A., (1991) conducted a study to test whether two brands of beer had established associations with their use contexts in terms of whether the consumers felt “warm”, “friendly”, “healthy”, and "wholesome” in using the beers. The findings were that one brand of beer was associated with “warm” and “friendly” whereas the other brand was evaluated higher on “healthy” and “wholesome”. Other researchers also have shown that brands can be linked to other value, like Cova (1997) says that brands possess a ‘linking value’, which links the brand users into groups or communities. Mihalis Kavaratzis & Ashworth (2005) further extends this ‘community-link’ idea and say that there are strong associations between the adoption of life-styles as group identifiers and the specific brand to the extent that groups themselves become branded with the product (‘Armani set’).

As par the literature, brands have linking value. This value may link the brand itself to an adjective (friendly, healthy) or it may link the brand user/consumer with a group that has strong association with that brand. Consumer’s intention to be included to a particular group is the trigger to use a particular brand and the brand is used as a group identifier.

BRAND – CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Several consumer researchers have developed buyer behaviour models which are based on the C-A-B (Cognition, Attitude, and Behaviour) (Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2005) paradigm as a backbone. For example, Howard and Sheth (1969) in The theory of buyer behaviour have used C-A-B paradigm. In their conceptual framework, brand comprehension affects attitude, which then affects intention or purchase. Fishbein & Ajzen (1975) further added to encompass social pressure on consumer behaviour. In this context, subjective norms refer to perceived social pressures encountered when making a brand choice.

C-A-B PARADIGM MODEL

FIGURE 01: C-A-B PARADIGM (KAVARATZIS & ASHWORTH, 2005)

Sheppard et al.’s (1988, p. 336) meta-analysis revealed “a frequency-weighted average correlation” for the prediction of behavioural intention from attitudes and subjective norms. In other meta-analyses (Kim & Hunter, 1993a & 1993b), attitude was a significant predictor of behaviour. The literature says cognition from brand comprehension affects attitude toward a brand and attitude further affects intention to purchase. Social norms also shape consumer’s brand choice. Evidence shows that, attitude may be used to predict consumer buying behaviour. It is noticeable that, in most of the consumer behaviourists’ works, ‘behaviour’ has been defined as narrowed down to “behaviour related to purchase”.

BRAND PERSONALITY OR BRAND PERSONIFICATION

Considering the existing literature, brands can be described with human like personalities (Plummer, 1984), where personality comprises a set of traits or factors (Eysenck, 1970; Norman, 1963 & Pervin, 2003). In brand personification, consumers are expected to intend to have a relationship with a brand that has personality similar to his/her (Blackston, 1992 & 2000). On the other hand, through marketing activities of the firm, brands iteratively affects consumers’ attitude toward the band (Dall’Olmo Riley & de Chernatony, 2000). Brands might be described, for example, as having friendly or exciting personalities (J. Aaker’s, 1997). Brand personality may help consumers differentiate among the myriad products available in the marketplace (Keller, 2003).

Brand Personality is a Construct that suggests, brands’ personality has an impact on consumers’ buying behaviour. Tendency of higher association between brand and consumer of like personality is the core philosophy of this construct. Moreover, as the literature says, iterative communication of brand attitude may change even unlike consumer’s attitude favorable to the brand.

However, it does not necessarily establish any relationship to show that brand’s personality (independent factor) brings changes to consumer’s personality (dependent factor).

CONSUMERS’ SLEEPER EFFECTS

Sometimes it may happen that, consumers cannot remember being exposed to the ad still they exhibit changes in their perceptions of the advertised stimulus. This phenomena has been defined as Sleeper Effects by Pashupati (2003), while others have named it as preconscious processing effects (Janiszewski, 1988), incidental ad exposure effects (Shapiro, MacInnis, & Heckler, 1997), unconscious perception effects (Shapiro, MacInnis, Heckler, & Perez, 1999), and implicit memory processes (Holden & Vanhuele, 1999). Krishnan and Chakravarti (1999) also have suggested that consumers can learn, retain and act on information via unconscious and implicit learning processes.

Sleeper’s Effect can be an important factor for marketer as well as consumer behaviourists, as it brings changes in consumer minds though not consciously. Importance to study Sleeper’s Effect rises to immense height, as this does not happen consciously, and there lies the beauty of Sleeper’s Effect, as well as complexity for the consumer behaviourists.

BRAND & NEUROPSYCHOLOGY

The representation of a brand (its mental pattern of connections) at the neuronal level is called a brand engram, a phrase first coined by Robert Heath (2000a & 2000b). Most part of a brand engram is under the authority of subconscious mind, route to which is not merely a question-answer method (Gordon, 2001). Gordon (2001) further says that, individual’s behaviour remains tantalizingly unpredictable, because a great deal of brand choice and purchase behaviour is automatic and no longer exists in the province of consciousness.

Gordon’s findings draw a picture of consumer’s mind dividing into conscious and subconscious level and giving more decision-making weights to subconscious level. That means, in exploring impact of a brand on consumer behaviour, consumers’ minds should be considered at both subconscious and conscious levels while giving more weight to subconscious level.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR & CLASSICAL CONDITIONING THEORY

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VOLUME NO. 2 (2012), ISSUE NO. 3 (MARCH) ISSN 2231-5756 Many of our behaviours today are shaped by the pairing of stimuli. Have you ever noticed that certain stimuli, such as the smell of cologne or perfume, a certain song, a specific day of the year, and results in fairly intense emotions? It's not that the smell or the song are the cause of the emotion, but rather what that smell or song has been paired with...perhaps an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, the death of a loved one, or maybe the day you met your current husband or wife. We make these associations all the time and often don't realize the power that these connections or pairings have on us. But, in fact, we have been classically conditioned.

Classical conditioning theory works with advertising too. For example, many beer ads prominently feature attractive young women wearing bikinis. The young women (unconditioned stimulus) naturally elicit a favorable, mildly aroused feeling (unconditioned response) in most men. The beer is simply associated with this effect. The same thing applies with the jingles and music that accompany many advertisements.

Thus, Classical Conditioning Theory establishes its role clearly on relationship between a brand and its consumer. If the brand is effectively successfully associated with a stimulus, whenever consumers would see or experience that particular stimulus, will recall the brand, or the other way, if any stimulus (feeling/experience) is effectively successfully associated with a brand, whenever consumers would see or experience that particular brand, will recall the stimulus (feeling/experience). Here goes the role of classical conditioning theory to comprehend for the marketers.

CONCLUSION

Branding has been getting more and more emphasize day by day. At the same time, more and more creative thinking is explored for creating, positioning and communicating brands. In search of alternative creative ways of branding, this study explores the relationship between a brand and consumer and the impact a brand may have on consumer behaviour.

In summing up, the relationship between a bran and consumer, following factors are important to comply:

1. Brand is a multi dimensional construct and thus its definition is multi facet. Therefore in positioning own brand, a marketer should explore all possible

areas that could be used to manipulate and better represent the brand. The possible areas, though not limited to, are: physical and socio-psychological attributes & beliefs associated with the product, distinctiveness of positioning and personality, uniqueness of functional attributes and symbolic values, ease of recognition etc.

2. The marketer may choose to use the socio – psychological attributes and beliefs that are subsets to brand, to stimulate or craft consumer psychology in a

desired way, which would be favorable for the brand.

3. Marketers should recognise that, brands have linking value. This value may link the brand itself to an adjective (friendly, healthy) or it may link the brand

user/consumer with a group that has strong association with that brand. Consumer’s intention to be included to a particular group is the trigger to use a particular brand and the brand is used as a group identifier. Thus, marketers may want to posit their brand in a way, so that it is linked to a positive adjective or linked to a group, which is mostly sought by consumers.

4. Targeting ‘Increasing intention to buy’ directly may not be that fruitful as purchase behaviour is not changed by brand communications directly. Firstly,

cognition of brand comprehension is achieved and then cognition affects attitude toward a brand and attitude further affects intention to purchase.

5. While drawing a Brand’s Personality marketer should focus on higher association between brand personality and consumer of like personality. Therefore,

the brand personality should be such that consumers intend to follow and enjoy imitating. Brand personality should not sketch out a figure that is drawn based on an alien. An alien-like brand personality would fail to develop the association with consumers of same personality.

6. Ad recall is a mostly used tool in contemporary market research arena that is used to predict ad awareness, or brand awareness. However, this study

suggests that consumers may not be able to recall the ad but may display the expected behaviour for the brand. This phenomenon is called Sleeper’s Effect and sleeper’s effect says that, marketers should not solely depend on ‘ad recall’ as an indicator of ad awareness or brand awareness.

All marketing personnel in the planet earth have always intended to use data and information around its target group, to predict consumer’s behaviour. This study issues a reminder for all marketers that, neuropsychology says that despite the power of high-tech instruments and the vast amount of data collected with it, individual’s behaviour remains tantalizingly unpredictable, because a great deal of brand choice and purchase behaviour is automatic and no longer exists in the province of consciousness. Neuropsychology also dictates that, a formal or informal level of questionnaire-based research work may reach consumer’s conscious level, where a few decisions are actually taken, though the methodology of the research work may be based up on sound statistical ground. That is why this study suggests the marketer to focus on in-depth issues more while deciding about the consumer behaviour of its target market, instead of directly asked-answered questionnaire method.

REFERENCES

1. Aaker, D.A., (1991), “Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the value of a Brand Name”. New York: the Free Press.

2. BBC, (2000), “Unilever: A company history”. Retrieved 09 July 2011, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/651938.stm

3. Blackston, M., (1992), “A brand with an attitude: A suitable case for treatment”. Journal of the Market Research Society, 34, pp. 231–241.

4. Blackston, M., (2000), “Observations: Building brand equity by managing the brand’s relationships”. Journal of Advertising Research, 40, pp. 101–105.

5. Chernatony, d. L. & Dall’Olmo R. F., (1998), “Defining a Brand: Beyond the Literature with Experts”. Interpretations Journal of Marketing Management 14,

pp. 417–443.

6. Colapinto, J., (2011), “Famous Names”, The New Yorker. Retrieved 09 October 2011, from http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03

/111003fa_fact_colapinto

7. Cova, B., (1997), “Community and Consumption: Towards a Definition of the ‘Linking Value’ of Products and Services”. European Journal of Marketing 31,

pp. 297–316.

8. Dall’Olmo, R, F. & Chernatony, d, L., (2000), “The service brand as relationships builder”. British Journal of Management, 11, pp. 137–150.

9. Eysenck, H. J., (1970), “The structure of human personality”. London: Methuen.

10. Gordon, W., (2001), “The darkroom of the mind – What does neuropsychology now tells us about brands?”. Journal of Consumer Behavior Vol. 1, 3, pp.

280 – 292, Henry Stewart Publications 1472-0817

11. Hankinson, G. & Cowking, P., (1993), “Branding in Action”. London: McGraw-Hill.

12. Heath, R., (2000a), “Low Involvement Processing –A New Model of Brands and Advertising”. International Journal of Advertising, 19 August 2000.

13. Heath, R. (2000b), “15th Annual Monitoring Advertising Performance Conference”. London, WARC, Henley-on-Thames, UK, January 2000.

14. Holden, S. J. S. & Vanhuele, M., (1999), “Know the name, forget the exposure: Brand familiarity versus memory of exposure context”. Psychology &

Marketing, 16, pp. 479–496.

15. Howard, J. A. & Sheth, J. N., (1969), “The theory of buyer behavior”. New York: John Wiley.

16. Janiszewski, C., (1988), “Preconscious processing effects: The independence of attitude formation and conscious thought”. Journal of Consumer Research,

15, pp. 199–209.

17. Kapferer, J. l., (1997), “Strategic Brand Management”. Great Britain: Kogan Page.

18. Kavaratzis, M. & Ashworth, G. J., (2005), “City Branding: An Effective Assertion of Identity or A Transitory Marketing Trick?”. Tijdschrift voor Economische

en Sociale Geografie – 2005, Vol. 96, No. 5, pp. 506–514, Blackwell Publishing Ltd..

19. Keller, K. L., (2003), “Strategic brand management (2d ed.)”. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

20. Kim, M. S. & Hunter, J. E., (1993a), “Attitude behavior relations: a meta-analysis of attitudinal relevance and topic”. Journal of Communications, 43, pp.

101–142.

21. Kim, M. S. & Hunter, J. E. (1993b), “Relationships among attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behavior: a meta-analysis of past research, part 2”.

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22. Krishnan, S, H. & Chakravarti, D., (1999), “Memory Measures for Pre-testing Advertising: A Conceptual Framework and a Diagnostic Template”. Journal of

Consumer Psychology, 8, pp 1-40.

23. Malhotra, N. K., (2004), “Marketing Research” (4th ed.). Pearson Education.

24. Norman, W., (1963), “Toward an adequate taxonomy of personality attribute: Replicated factor structure in peer nomination personality types”. Journal of

Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66, pp. 574–583.

25. Pashupati, K., (2003), “I know this brand, but did I like the ad?”. An investigation of the familiarity-based sleeper effect, Psychology & Marketing, 20, pp.

1017–1043.

26. Pendergrast, M., (2000), “For God, Country and Coca-Cola”. Basic Books, ISBN 978-0-465-05468-8.

27. Pervin, L. A., (2003), “The science of personality (2nd ed.)”. New York: Oxford University Press.

28. Plummer, J. T., (1984), “How personality makes a difference”. Journal of Advertising Research, 24, pp. 27–31.

29. Shapiro, S., MacInnis, D. J. & Heckler, S. E., (1997), “The effects of incidental ad exposure on the formation of consideration sets”. Journal of Consumer

Research, 24, pp. 94–104.

30. Shapiro, S., MacInnis, D. J., Heckler, S. E. & Perez, A. M., (1999), “An experimental method for studying unconscious perception in a marketing context”.

Psychology & Marketing, 16, pp. 459–477.

31. Sheppard, B. H., Hartwick J. & Warshaw, P. R., (1988), “The theory of reasoned action: a meta analysis of past research with recommendations for

modifications and future research”. Journal of Consumer Research, 15, pp.325–343.

32. Simoes, C. & Dibb, S., (2001), “Rethinking the Brand Concept: New Brand Orientation”. Corporate Communications: An International Journal 6, pp. 217–

224.

33. Wikipedia, (2011), “Brand”. Retrieved 10 October 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand

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VOLUME NO. 2 (2012), ISSUE NO. 3 (MARCH) ISSN 2231-5756

IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION AND UNION – MANAGEMENT RELATION ON ENHANCED

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION- REGRESSION ANALYSIS: A STUDY OF ANDHRA PRADESH STATE ROAD

TRANSPORT CORPORATION (A.P.S.R.T.C)

A. R. VIJAYA CHANDRAN

ASST. PROFESSOR

CHRIST UNIVERSITY INSTITUE OF MANAGEMENT

CHRIST UNIVERSITY

BANGALORE

DR. MOHAMMED ABBAS ALI

PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT & DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

AL GHURAIR UNIVERSITY

DUBAI

DR. V. M. PRASAD

PROFESSOR

SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

KUKATPALLY

ABSTRACT

For any organization Union and Management relations is very important for its effective functioning. Doing a job effectively can be done by employees only when they are satisfied. And when both Employee Satisfaction and Union –Management Relations are in good manner then it will have its good impact on Customer Satisfaction as they will be (that is Employer and Employee) will be in a position to do their jobs effectively in serving customers (passengers). This humble study makes an analysis on Employee Satisfaction and Union – Management relations and its impact on Customer Satisfaction.

KEYWORDS

union and management relations, customer satisfaction, APSRTC.

INTRODUCTION

PSRTC (Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation) the other name for this organization is common man’s vehicle or poor man’s vehicle.As per

the estimates of the organization more than one crore passengers travel daily in the State from one place to another place. APSRTC which is used as an essential service by all the sections of society should get its pie of Importance from its benefactors. “To acquire resources organizations must inevitably interact with their social environments. No Organization is completely self contained–survival comes when the organization adjusts to and copes with its

environment, not only when it makes efficient internal adjustments”1

NEED FOR THE STUDY

APSRTC (Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation) is a corporation which is meant for providing service to the common man. According to the Corporations estimates only more than 1.32 crore passengers travel in APSRTC on a daily basis. This shows the enormous service this organization does for the sake of the public. It covers all the sections of the society and almost all the parts of the state in doing service. But it has its own problems created by number of factors. One of the problems has been taken and considered in this study that is the Impact of Employee Satisfaction and Union – Management relation on

Customer Satisfaction (that is passenger satisfaction). “Employees who feel satisfied with their jobs provide higher levels of customer satisfaction”2. Such an

organization which is having lot of importance now a days is plagued by problems. This humble study is an attempt to provide a solution for increasing customer satisfaction which is being eroded systematically. After the analysis of the study we can clearly conclude that Employee Satisfaction and Union – Management relation show considerable impact on Customer Satisfaction. “ Estimation of a path analytic model using the aggregated data shows that customer perceived

service quality completely mediates the relationship between employee job satisfaction and customer satisfaction” 3 .

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

APSRTC (Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation) which is one of the biggest Public Sector Corporations in Andhra Pradesh State is plagued by innumerable problems because of number of factors. One of the problems is losing confidence amongst the customers (i.e. passengers) and its decreasing occupancy ratio (ratio between number of passengers boarding and the number of seats available in a bus). This study tries to provide a solution for the problem of Customer satisfaction towards APSRTC.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To contain eroding customer satisfaction towards the corporation.

2. Contribution of satisfied employees towards Customer satisfaction.

3. Union – Management relation and its impact on Customer Satisfaction.

METHODOLOGY

Random Sampling has been done. Out of 21 depots in twin cities (Hyderabad and Secunderabad) 5 depots has been selected from different parts that is Uppal, Mehidipatnam, Mushirabad, Dilshukhnagar and Midhani depots. And out these 5 depots 1007 employees were taken as sample size and questionnaire was administered.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study is limited to twin cities that are Hyderabad and Secunderabad that too the study is limited to City buses only (ie which run in city and its Surroundings only.)

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BACK DROP

The origin of APSRTC (Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation) dates back to June 15th, 1932 when the passenger road transport was started in the

Nizam’s State Railways in Telangana Area with a modest fleet of 27 buses each having a seat capacity of 24 and 166 employees with a capital investment of 3, 93,000/- (Three lakh ninety three thousand rupees only). In 1936 a full – fledged department popularly known as Nizam State Railway road transport department was formed. After the integration of Nizam’s State with Indian Union in 1950, the Nizam’s State Railway was integrated with the Indian railways. The Road Transport department of Nizam’s state railways was integrated with Indian Railways. The Road Transport Department of Nizam’s state railway was

therefore separated from 16.10.1950. The Indian Railways managed the Road Transport Department till October 31st, 1951 on an agency basis.

The constitution of APSRTC on 11th January, 1958 under the provisions of Road Transport Corporations act 1950 heralded rapid growth of nationalized transport

in Andhra Pradesh. In pursuance of policy of nationalization the Corporation had taken over passenger transport of Krishna, Guntur and West Godavari districts between 1959 and after a period of consolidation launched the second phase of expansion from 1973 onwards. During the period 1973-78 the passenger Transport of Intra – state routes of Kurnool, Chittoor, East Godavari and Anantapur were nationalized in addition to important routes in Cuddapah, Nellore, Prakasham, Vishakapatnam and Vizianagaram districts. The Corporation was running a few services on long distance routes in Srikakulam district although services in district were not fully nationalized.

In 1999 the Corporation has entered Guinness Book of World Records for owning largest fleet of buses. At the end of February 2007 the Corporation was operating 19,548 buses including about 1500 hired buses, with a staff strength of 1, 15,513 carrying approximately 1.32 crore passengers everyday to their destinations. The Corporation is credited with many distinctions envisioned to other Corporations in areas of Vehicular Utilization, Kilometers per liter, Biggest Bus station complexes in Asia etc and has been recipient of many awards including for maintaining good Industrial Relations from State and Central Governments. Now after a gap of three successful years the corporation has added still some more buses to its existing fleet and number of employees to its existing number of employees. The present strength of employees is 1, 13,234, the number of buses which it is having is 20,637 and the strength is according to

statistics available up to 31st_{January, 2009. “We propose that organizational size affects customer satisfaction directly and through the interesting variable of}

employee job satisfaction.”4

APSRTC to survive there should have cordial atmosphere between Union and Management. If it is lacking then the organization which is gigantic in nature and second to none in competition might lose its shine and might cave in for private competitors then the employees and customers (passengers) future might be put to jeopardy. This humble study is an attempt to know the importance of Employee Satisfaction and Union Management Relation on Enhanced Customer Satisfaction. That is this analysis finds out both the Employee satisfaction and Union Management relation and its effect on Enhanced Customer Satisfaction. And

after the analysis we can clearly conclude that Employee Satisfaction and Union Management relation is essential for Customer satisfaction.

ANALYSIS OF THE STUDY

DEPENDENT VARIABLE: ENHANCED CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Regression analysis was used to find the effect of Employee Satisfaction (ES) and Union- Management Relation Index (UMR) on Enhanced Customer Satisfaction (ECS) of the APSRTC Employees. Employee Satisfaction (ES) comprises two dimensions such as Employee Monetary Satisfaction (EMS) and Employee Stress (ES). UMR comprises three dimensions such as Role Played (RP) Relationship (RE) and Role deal with Government (RDG). In Multiple Linear Regression Analysis, as method Step wise is used. Dependent Variables is ECS and independent variables are EMS, ES, RP, RE and RDG.

The regression models shown in above table contributed significantly and predicted 23.5 percent of impact of Employees Monetary Satisfaction (EMS) in mode-1, 32 percent variation by EMS & Role Played in model-2 and 41.4 percent variation by EMS , Role Played (RP) & Relationship (RE) in model-3, 41.7 per cent variation by EMS , Role Played (RP) , Relationship (RE) and Role deal with Govt. (RDG) in model-4 towards Enhanced Customer Satisfaction among APSRTC employees. For all the four models F value is greater than 4 and Sig value is <.01 Hence all models are statistically significant at 1% level. The equations to predict the Dependent variable is given below: - The equation shows the constant and respective unstandardized beta value of independent variables.

Y =. 849+ 0.870X1——-- (1)

Y= .428 + 0.807X1+0.160X2—— (2)

Y= .560+0.500X1+0.173X2-0.221X3——— (3)

Y= .899+0.517X1+0.161X2+0.21X3-.116X4——— (4)

Whereas, Y= Enhanced Customer Satisfaction (ECS); X1= Employee Monetary Satisfaction (EMS); X2= Role Played (RP), and X3= Relationship (RE) X4 = Role deal

with Govt. (RDG);

FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS

The above findings suggest that Customer satisfaction is very important for an organization’s survival. Especially for a service oriented organization it is still important to gain customer satisfaction.

SUGGESTION 1: Dependent variable and independent variables are significantly related to each other.

SUGGESTION 2: For Customer Satisfaction – Employee Satisfaction and Union Management Relations are very important. That is without Employee Satisfaction and Union Management relations customer satisfaction can’t be achieved.

REFERENCES

1. Paul S. Good man, Mark Fichman, F. Javier Lerch Panda R. Snyden, Carnegie Mellon University, “Customer – Firm relationships, involvement and Customer

Satisfaction”, Academy of Management Journal 1995, Vol. 38, No.5, 1310-1324.

2. Robin L. Snipes, Sharon L. Oswald, Michael Latous Achilles, A. Armenakis, “ The effect of job satisfaction facets on customer perceptions of service quality

an employee level analysis”– Journal of Business Research, Volume 58, Issue 10, October 2005, Pages 1330 – 1339.

3. A meta analysis of relationships linking employee satisfaction to customer responses – Journal of Retailing, Volume 84, Issue 3, September 2008, PP 243 –

255.

4. Nadav Goldschmidt, Belts G. Cheng, “Size does matter: The effect of organizational size on customer satisfaction” Journal of quality of management,

Volume No. 6 Issue 1, 4th_{quarter 2001, PP 47 – 60.}

ModelPredictors R R SquareAdjusted R SquareStd. Error of the Estimate F Sig. Standardized Coefficients - Betat Sig.

1 Employees Monetary Satisfaction 0.484 0.235 0.234 0.572 303.98 0.000 0.484 17.435 0.000 2 Employees Monetary Satisfaction 0.566 0.320 0.319 0.540 233.26 0.000 0.449 17.026 0.000

Role Played 0.295 11.164 0.000

3 Employees Monetary Satisfaction 0.643 0.414 0.412 0.502 232.69 0.000 0.278 9.922 0.000

Role Played 0.319 12.960 0.000

Relationship 0.350 12.560 0.000

4 Employees Monetary Satisfaction 0.646 0.417 0.415 0.500 177.20 0.000 0.288 10.208 0.000

Role Played 0.296 11.411 0.000

Relationship 0.333 11.672 0.000

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VOLUME NO. 2 (2012), ISSUE NO. 3 (MARCH) ISSN 2231-5756

A STUDY OF THE ATTITUDE OF THE YOUTH TOWARDS ADOPTION OF INTERNET ENTERPRENEUERSHIP IN

NIGERIA

DR. I C NWAIZUGBO

READER

DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING

NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY

AWKA

V N O AGHARA

LECTURER

DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING

NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY

AWKA

ABSTRACT

This study aimed at assessing the attitude of the young people in Nigeria towards the adoption of internet entrepreneurship. It specifically looked at the depth of interest and usage level of internet as well as determined the activities that dominated their internet time. It further determined the factors that influence the rate of adoption of internet entrepreneurship. Both primary and secondary sources were used for the study. Relevant literature was reviewed while survey method was used to collect primary data from 595 respondents in 2010. Findings show that Nigerian youths are aware and are interested in the internet entrepreneurship but have been slow in adopting it as an employment opportunity. Presently, the activities of the youth in the internet are dominated by search for new information and social communications. Money making activities rank low. The factors that contribute to slow growth include personal characteristics of the user, system constraints like problem of payment, delivery and product evaluation and choice process, and environmental constraints like poor provision of infrastructure, legal and ethical issues. It is recommended that a deliberately designed developmental marketing strategy could be used to fast track the adoption rate of the internet entrepreneurship especially if it is sponsored by government agency. Workshops, conferences or trainings are recommended. If this is done, the adoption of internet entrepreneurship will increase thereby reducing unemployment as well as fraudulent activities that are performed in the internet.

KEYWORDS

adoption, employment, entrepreneurship, Internet entrepreneur, profitability.

INTRODUCTION

mong the attributes associated with Information Communication Technology (ICT) include its ability to create entrepreneurship opportunities that are not constrained by geographic boundaries, culture, socio-economic class and entry barriers. ICT and the entire digital technology are known to have created wealth opportunities for the whole world but the achievement of the internet in this regard is unprecedented. Internet is a process that allows several users of computer all over the world to interact through a virtual contact. This has permitted information sharing among the countries of the world on real time. Internet is considered as a major breakthrough and a backbone in this information age, because the growth in the uses and usage rate of internet has been rapid. In fact it has been predicted that a major divide the business world would experience is a divide among those who are in the internet and those who are not.

The character of ease of entry and accessibility make the internet market an attractive opportunity for entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is defined as the process of creating something different with value by devoting the necessary time and efforts, assuming the accompanying financial, psychological and social risks, receiving the resulting rewards on monetary and personal satisfactions (Udeh, 1999). An entrepreneur is someone who demonstrates such behavior in filling the gaps and bringing together resources in innovative ways. An entrepreneur is visionary. He sees a stepping stone where others see stumbling blocks and enjoys the risk of innovatively combining resources in a peculiar way that creates want satisfying product or improves its delivery process to the target market. The internet has turned the world into a market space for the entrepreneur by removing national borders such that with the right equipment one can reach any part of the world from a remote village (Agbonifoh et al, 2007).

Nigeria is a country with high unemployment profile (Obadan and Odisola, 2000) of which high school leavers and University graduates in the urban area are worst hit. With such record, one would expect that, given the orchestrated potentials of internet entrepreneurship, its adoption would have been overwhelming. This appears not to be the case with the rate at which the youth adopt internet entrepreneurship even though it had been reported that many Nigerian youths were now embracing the internet business (Mordi, 2007); and that the use of internet in Nigeria was increasing (Ozuru and Kalu, 2006). The objectives of this study therefore are to determine the depth of interest and usage rate of the youth in the internet, determine whether the dominant activities performed in the internet were entrepreneurial and to determine factors that influence the rate of adoption of the internet entrepreneurship.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Internet entrepreneur is the person who makes or delivers product or service for and over digital networks (Murono, 2009). He is sometimes called the Netprenuer (Seah, 2010). Mordi (2008) reports that a book published in US writes that the internet entrepreneurs whom it described as “new professionals” form 90 per cent of new millionaires in that country. Internet has created riches not only for the founders of search engines like google and yahoo; or social media like facebook or twitters but for other creative users who could determine a need and provide satisfactory solution through the internet. Futurists have already predicted that in the nearest future, internet will dominate the business world. Reasons are:

• High rate of diffusion of the internet facilities/usage

• Increasing number of things one can do with the internet

• Attractive business/marketing opportunity

• Simplified entry requirement

Low capital

No conditionality (no registration)

No discrimination on the basis of gender, race status etc.

• Easy access to market: your website is your shop and you can design your front shop the way you like it.

Whereas anything could be sold in the internet it is generally suggested that information products take vantage position because it is easy to create and modify, it is cheap and delivery system is also efficient. Few of the internet products that have enriched many include publication of e-books/e-magazines, blogging,

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VOLUME NO. 2 (2012), ISSUE NO. 3 (MARCH) ISSN 2231-5756 articles and book chapters (Yu, 2006). Internet Affiliate Programs which is an online version of multi-level marketing has been used widely to sell information products and it is seen as a powerful wealth creator. Domain Name marketing and Web site design are also very viable. Google uses its Adword and Adsense to open the doors of its site to any person who can advertise and market any product in its page or take advantage of its sponsorship. Marketing Research, Product testing and Ghost Shopping are some of the marketing activities that create wealth in the internet. There are also opportunities for training and consultancy service in the internet.

One characteristic of the internet entrepreneur is that they find it easy to discuss how they made their money, perhaps as a selling point for marketing their own services even though Taylor (2010) suggested that the claim may not always be correct. Also the internet entrepreneurs most often use internet as medium for promoting their business. It is usually claimed that internet opportunity is opened equally to everybody but Boateng and Hinson (2007) opined that most of the e-marketing successes seem to occur more in developed countries than it is in developing countries. This corroborates Aguillo et al (2008) who also discovered that even information products in the internet mostly originate from the developed countries.

Profit is one factor that is known to motivate entrepreneurs to accept the challenge and risks associated with business. This suggests that entrepreneurs are likely to adopt ventures if they perceive reasonable returns from them, the risk level notwithstanding. Adoption has been defined as an individual’s decision to become regular user of a product (Kotler and Keller, 2006: 658). The Theory of Innovation Diffusion explains the process of the spread of new idea or product from its source of invention or creation to the ultimate adopters (Rogers, 1983). According to the theory, innovations take time to spread through the social system, and usually adopters move through five stages of awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and adoption (Moreau et al, 2001). Rogers (1983) suggests that factors that can influence adoption rate include personal characteristics of the individual adopter, characteristics of the innovation and organization’s readiness to adopt innovation.

Adoption and use of internet services has equally attracted the attention of scholars and accordingly, many contributions have been made even though none has directly addressed the issue of adoption rate of internet entrepreneurship in developing countries. Moon (2004) studied the factors that influenced consumers’ adoption of the internet as an information search and product purchase channel and suggested that consumer characteristics, type of information, website characteristics among others are contributing factors that influence adoption. Longe et al (2006) studied the level of acceptance of internet marketing among Nigerian consumers and reported that there is high level of perceived acceptance because internet was seen as money saving, time saving, easy and enjoyable to use as well as creates access to information. Davis (1986) developed the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which he used to explain the internet adoption rate. He argued that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were important considerations. In another study, Kim and Park (1999) contended that that the benefit of online purchase such as time saving and convenience enhance consumers’ intention to purchase through the internet. Conversely, the risks of online purchase such as product reliability, delivery or refund related uncertainty reduce consumers’ intention to purchase through the internet. Sung and Kang (2000) demonstrated that consumers are concerned with credit card or personal information abuse in the process of online purchase.

Unethical and fraudulent activities in the internet discourage involvement in internet business to a great extent. Internet scams and advanced fee fraud have been commonly reported in Nigeria such that the Federal Government empowered the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to regulate internet activities. Ozuru and Kalu (2006: 49) reported that a study by Enonymous.com, a web privacy rating company shows that only 3.5 percent of the 30,000 websites investigated do not share personal information. 70% of the websites do not have privacy policy at all. Boateng and Hinson (2007) reported that poor state of facilities and infrastructure could affect the adoption of internet usage. For example, whereas only 6.8% of the people use internet in Africa, 74.2% use in North America compared to the world average of 25.6%. Table below shows details of statistical distribution of world internet usage and penetration rate.

WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS World Regions Population

( 2009 Est.)

Internet Users Dec. 31, 2000

Internet Users Latest Data

Penetration (% Population)

Growth 2000-2009

Users % of Table Africa 991,002,342 4,514,400 67,371,700 6.8 % 1,392.4 % 3.9 %

Asia 3,808,070,503 114,304,000 738,257,230 19.4 % 545.9 % 42.6 %

Europe 803,850,858 105,096,093 418,029,796 52.0 % 297.8 % 24.1 % Middle East 202,687,005 3,284,800 57,425,046 28.3 % 1,648.2 % 3.3 % North America 340,831,831 108,096,800 252,908,000 74.2 % 134.0 % 14.6 % Latin America/Caribbean 586,662,468 18,068,919 179,031,479 30.5 % 890.8 % 10.3 % Oceania / Australia 34,700,201 7,620,480 20,970,490 60.4 % 175.2 % 1.2 % WORLD TOTAL 6,767,805,208 360,985,492 1,733,993,741 25.6 % 380.3 % 100.0 % NOTES: (1) Internet Usage and World Population Statistics are for September 30, 2009.

Source: www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Further details of the table showing the usage distribution in Africa shows that Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco are highest users with 18, 16 and 15 percents respectively. Regular and stable power supply; as well as availability of Internet Service Provider (ISP) are also factors to consider in Nigeria.

METHODOLOGY

This study is essentially an exploratory study which investigates the actions of the youths with regards to internet entrepreneurship. The researchers used primary and secondary sources. Related literature was reviewed with a view to gaining more insight in to the current developments in internet usage and the entrepreneurship opportunities in the internet. To source the primary, survey was used to collected data from a conveniently selected